2021 – CHW
A Burncoose trip to finalise trip to finalise next year’s budget and implement pay-rises and bonuses.Toona sinensis ‘Flamingo’ with its startling pink new growth in the cash point.

Euphorbia polychroma looking especially good in the sun.

Telopea speciosissima ‘Braidwood Brilliant’ flowering away.

Acer palmatum ‘Skeeters Broom’ looking wonderful with its new growth full out.

The Michelias looking superb in Tunnel 3.

Michelia ‘Fairy Cream’

Michelia laevifolia

Michelia laevifolia ‘Summer Snowflake’

Magnolia x loebneri ‘Wildcat’

Surprisingly early to see a flower on Magnolia x wieseneri ‘Aashild Kalleberg’.

Kalmia polifolia full out.

Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ is a plant we have needed pictures for the website for ages.

Flowers just out on x Raphiobotrya ‘Coppertone’

Clianthus puniceus ‘Flamingo’ alongside Clianthus puniceus ‘Albus’.

Syringa vulgaris ‘Madame Antoine Buchner’ just coming out. A new entry in our 2021 catalogue.

2020 – CHW
In a ‘war’ there will always be profiteering and skulduggery. The insurance industry have belatedly got their PR machine to operate to tell us how much they will be paying out for the corona (£1.2bn).It is a total lie of course because very very few businesses have any ‘business interruption’ cover for something like corona. Those who might have, and thought that they did, have had their claims denied.The insurers and Lloyds are not going to pay up to businesses, and why should they, despite what will be a torrent of legal battles and pressure on the government to ‘do something’ (as for flood victims insurance in a government backed scheme). Read the contract!Since few people are driving their cars the main vehicle insurers are coining it on the lack of motor insurance accidents (or whiplash/bogus) claims. Let us see how they lower premiums for next year? Do not hold your breath!And then there are the travel companies, airlines, railways etc who are using people’s prepaid cash (and mine) to not refund what they have not delivered.The insurance industry’s media claims over the weekend should be seen for what they are. Defensive profiteering!No doubt the BBC will help them to promote this as another ‘entitlement’.Looking at Tunnel Field today at Burncoose with my brother and Rob Toy. Rob will spray the brambles off and we will then slash them down and spray any regrowth. Early next spring we will plant this 2 acre field as a new yellow magnolia garden which should be a new first for Cornwall to flower in April and May. My brother wants to restore the tunnel under the gardens to this field so that this can eventually be the public access. In the meantime a small path from the main drive. A few specimen conifers with the yellow magnolias and, later on, big clumps of tall growing rhododendrons. A great new project for the garden.Looking good in the nursery today:Ribes speciosum

Telopea ‘Shady Lady White’

Calothamnus quadrifidus – first flowers ever with us on the ‘one sided bottlebrush’.

Our first plants in stock of Pseudotaxus chienii.

First flowers here on Amelanchier alnifolia ‘Obelisk’.

Weigelia ‘Black and White’ nicely out.

Attractive new growth on Tristianopsis laurina.

I attach email correspondence with James Garnett from the Service des Espaces Verts et de l’Environnement (SEVE) in Nantes about Michelias with his pictures. At issue is the variation in the forms of Michelia doltsopa and whether the big plant here of Michelia floribunda is actually that species.

From: James Garnett
Sent: 16 April 2020 15:55
To: Charles Williams PA
Subject: Re: Magnolia martinii
[…]
I hope everyone is ok at Caerhays, here in France it’s starting to calm down a bit.. I’m only aloud to work in the arboretum twice a week, sometines only once, so it’s quit frustrating.
Thank god we have good french wine to help us cope with that situation..
Since I’m stuck at home most of the time, I’ve been working on difficult botany subjects like Michelias for example.
And just before the start of the crisis we went to a nursery in brittany (Arven) and he has a few mother plants at the back. We’ve seen different species, all from seeds collected in China, some from the Kunming Botanical Garden. And finally we’ve seen a true Magnolia floribunda in flower with its typical star shaped white flower and leaves with a silvery underside. I’ve read your article on Michelias in the IDS Yearbook 2017, I find it very interesting, it shows how difficult Michelias are to identify. Considering what I’ve seen in Europe and China, I don’t think your plant at Caerhays is Magnolia floribunda. At that same nursery we’ve also seen 2 different forms of Magnolia doltsopa, one white, similar to the old ones you have at Caerhays and one more yellowish. The next week, we went to the amazing arboretum of “La Roche Fauconnière” in Cherbourg and there, they have a big Magnolia doltsopa, planted in 1967 and it is a bit different from everything I’ve seen… I tend to conclud that M. doltsopa is a very variable species. At that same garden they also a huge Magnolia lanuginosa (Michelia velutina) with a copious amount of seeds in late winter. Do you have that species? if not we can keep one for you.
[…]

From: Charles Williams PA
Sent: 17 April 2020 13:52
To: ‘James Garnett’
Subject: RE: Magnolia martinii
[…]
The Michelia doltsopa puzzle which I wrote about was mainly prompted by Maurice Foster who strongly maintains that the larger plants at Caerhays at the top of the garden should be classified as Michelia manipurensis because of the velvety indumentum on the undersides of the leaves etc. The three other mature Michelias growing above the greenhouse are all a bit different to each other and very different indeed to what Maurice thinks is manipurensis. Tom’s view is that all the plants at Caerhays, including the one we call Michelia floribunda, are forms of doltsopa. He may, or may not, be right and this provides us with plenty of entertainment in future arguments.
[…]

2019 – CHW
Much of the spraying around young plants in the garden now complete. Along the way Jaimie discovered:How well the bluebells are now doing in full shade in the top section of Forty Acres Wood which was destroyed in the 1990 hurricane and replanted soon afterwards mainly with beech.

Some very odd fungi in a clump. I wish I knew more about these. Why in the spring?

First proper flowering of Michelia ‘Fairy Blush’.

Camellia reticulata ‘Lary Piet’ – a new one to us.

Camellia reticulata ‘Lovely Lady’ – ditto.

I have often wondered how many of the original Wilson 50 evergreen azaleas we actually have tucked away in the older parts of the garden. The plants in the Rookery are elderly and many have been hit by falling beech trees. In my lifetime no one has ever known what any of these were actually called but I suspect they are Wilson 50 albeit rather poor plants by modern standards. Richard Morton at Trewidden is assembling the full 50 so he may perhaps be able to identify some of them? Here are eight different ones – some not that different perhaps but possibly all still unique originals?

Interesting, in the last days of April, to still find the last few camellia flowers on:
Camellia ‘Noblissima’ (first out November)

Camellia ‘Lady Clare’ (first out December)

The original wild collected Camellia saluenensis (pale form) (first out November)

Camellia ‘Cornish Snow’ (first out late November)

Camellia ‘Mary Jobson’ (first out January)

An incredibly long flowering season for any plant!

2018 – CHW
Off to Penvergate to view the best yellow magnolias.

Magnolia ‘Yellow Bird’ was sadly nearly over and I have missed it (planted 1997). The nearby Magnolia ‘Yellow Fever’ was not out yet (planted 1997).

Instead nearby was an excellent 2006 planted Magnolia ‘Sunburst’ performing really well and better than I have ever witnessed before.

Magnolia offinalis biloba still in bud too but many more buds (25) than ever before.

A very late Myrtus lechleriana just starting to flower. Other plants were out in late February. Wonderful bronzy new growth.

Back on the drive.
A newish Rhododendron neriiflorum full out.

Rhododendron oldhamii just showing too.

Magnolia ‘Daybreak’ with its first flowers out.

Rhododendron ‘Broughtonii’ grown from tissue culture and planted out three years ago are making good clumps and excellent progress.

Magnolia ‘Tikitere’ with its first flower on this plant.

Rhododendron ‘Emma Williams’ is mauve when full out but greenish yellow initially.

Scrambling up the bank above the drive and hidden away are three good pinkish Rhododendron sinogrande seedlings. Tree damaged a few years ago but a secret surprise.

Scrambling further up the bank to view a first time flowerer I am surprised to find it is Magnolia ‘Red Lion’. Our largest plant on Bond Street was out and over three weeks ago.

First flowers on another Magnolia lilliiflora ‘Holland Red’.

Magnolia ‘Plum Pudding’ ruined by the cold this year.

Nice vases of flowers for our weekend guests.

2017 – CHW
Amazingly some of the Echium pininana are already in flower and at least 12 feet tall. There was some white frost overnight, quickly burnt off in the early morning sun, but not enough to damage much or any new growth. Do echiums flower in April on Tresco? I wonder what the record height actually is?

Staphylea x elegans is also a late flowerer compared to the rest. A tinge of red apparently as the buds open but we are almost too late for that here and I forgot to do a close up that might have shown this.

Polyspora axialis (from Crug) was planted two years ago. Good new growth but it looks chlorotic. Perhaps this is normal for this rare new species?

Polyspora speciosa (from Crug) – no such problems here but a very floppy habit needing a good stake.

An Alan Clarke collection of Rhododendron concinnum var pseudoyanthinum Group – apparently. In the Pocket Guide it looks more like Rhododendron concinnum var benthamianum. Very different to the Burncoose plant by the pond anyway and easily mistaken for a pale Rhododendron augustinii.

I cannot locate the name of these three excellent loderi types with lovely peeling bark. Sparse flowers as yet but with initially frilly edges.

Rhododendron chapmanii full out in the sun. Dense habit and now a good clump.

The first of our three Magnolia ‘Daphne’ to be full out. It is arguably not as good as the Magnolia ‘Lois’ at Penrice Castle seen last week. More yellow but irregular flowers and too many leaves!